Improvement in steam vacuum-pumps



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PATENT. OFFICE.

\VILLIAM BURDON, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM VACUUM-PUMPS.-

. Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 141,540, dated August 5, 1873; application filed December 9, 1872.

' Vacuum-Pumps and Steam-Engine, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to the combination of steam vacuum-pumps with a steam-engine,

whereby the exhaust steam from the engine is made to produce the operation of the pumps, and the pumps are made to serve as a condenser to the engine. In such a combination, unless the engine works too slowly for practical ei'ficiency, or the engine has an extremely long stroke, a single pump, or even two pumps, taking steam alternately during successive strokes of the engine, cannot be made to condense all the steam, as the pumps cannot fill with Water and discharge with sufficient rapidity.

To overcome this difficulty, and to provide for working the pumps as slowly as necessary, and yet to make them condense and use up all the steam of the engine, I use three or more pumps; and my improvement consists in the arrangement of such pumps, their connections, their steam-inlet valves, and mechanism for operating the said valves, whereby the desired ends are attained.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is an elevation of a steam-engine and a series of steam vacuum-pipes illustrating my improvement. Fig. 2 is an elevation, partly in section, on a scale larger than Fig. 1, of the pumps and their connections and the valveoperating mechanism. Fig. 3 is an elevation corresponding with and at right angles to Fig. 2.

The pumps A A A, of which three are represented, but of which there may be a greater number, are arranged side by side in a straight row. They may be of any suitable form, and have their details, in the particulars not hereinafter specified, of any known or practical construction, and may have separate suction-pipes, or be all connected, as represented, with one suction-pipe, B, the upper part of which is arranged horizontally below them, each having its own separate foot-valve O. The exhaust-pipe D of the engine E is extended horizontally over the several pumps, and provided with a branch, at, for each pump. A steam-valve, F, is provided at the connection of each branch at with the 'top of the vacuum-chamber of each pump. The steam-valves may be of any suitable kind. I have represented them as simple stop-cocks. On one side of the row of pumps, parallel therewith and in suitable proximity to the valves, the valve-operating shaft G is horizontally arranged in suitable bearings b b. To this shaft are attached a after its respective wiper 0 passes its lever d.

Rotary motion may be imparted to the shaft G by the engine or by any suitable means.

The vacuum-chamber of each pump should be of such capacity that the whole of an exhausted charge of steam from the cylinder of the engine could be condensed within it.

To provide for the use of all the exhaust steam from the engine for the purpose Iof pumping, and its perfect condensation, the number of pumps, and the frequency with which their valves are severally. opened and closed 7 to produce their operation, will depend on their relation between the time required for the filling and discharge of each pump and the time occupied in eachv stroke of the engine, at least one pump being always in free open connection with the exhaust-pipe. The quicker the stroke of the engine the greater will be the number of pumps required. The best economy will be obtained both as to the quantity of water raised and the vacuum produced by having a full number of pumps, and will result from their being slightly in excess of the requisite number.

The rotary motion of the valve-operating shaft G producing the opening of the several valves F, and the operation of the several pumps one after another at regular intervals, one pump at least will always be in fully effective operation, and the exhaust-pipe of the engine is always open to a vacuum.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- The combination, with the exhaust-pipe of a steam engine, of three or more steam vacuumpumps, each having a separate steam-inlet valve and a valve-operating shaft, organized substantially as herein described, to operate the several valves in succession, as and for the purpose herein set forth.

WM. BURDON.

Witnesses:

HENRY '1. BROWN, MICHAEL RYAN. 

